DRUG smugglers attempted to unload nearly half-a-million pounds worth of cocaine at a pot-plant company in Waltham Abbey, a court heard.

Details of a covert police operation to smash the racket have emerged during a trial at Chelmsford Crown Court.

David Notley, 51, of Heathcote Grove, Chingford, denies conspiring with others to smuggle more than ten kilos of the Class A-drug through Tilbury Docks in Essex.

Co-defendant Ian Palmer, 41, was remanded in custody after pleading guilty to the charge on September 4, 2008, and will be sentenced after the conclusion the trial.

Customs officers at the border inspection post found large quantities of the drug concealed inside an estimated 120 pot plants during a search of a container which arrived from Nicaragua on March 11, 2008.

Port officials removed the drug then re-packed the soil and gravel into the pots prior to their delivery at Petals Plants in Galley Hill, Waltham Abbey, the hearing heard.

Officers from the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) had placed hidden microphones inside unit 13 at the site, and the court heard recordings of workers swapping angry exchanges while they allegedly searched the pot plants for the cocaine on the afternoon of March 15.

Prosecuting, Matthew Farmer, told jurors Notley was then immediately arrested outside the warehouse and had a mobile phone and paper work seized which linked him to the delivery.

Mr Farmer said that bank statements were also recovered which showed there had been no income at the company from the sale of pot plants, and that receipts from a shipping company were found which showed there had been several other similar deliveries to Petal Plants from Nicaragua throughout 2007.

He added that further investigations revealed that the company listed in Nicaragua did not exist.

The trial continues.